Wednesday, August 24, 2011

If first you don't succeed, fail again...

This is the first time failing at exposing a silk screen. Needless to say, I was crushed. The screen was exposed for a few minutes too long with the light a few cm too close. After half an hour of scrubbing to try to salvage the over exposed screen, I decided to try out Diazo emulsion remover and restart from square one.

Photo Emulsion Remover - Toxic!

The emulsion remover was to be spread over the exposed area, soaked for 1 - 1.5 min and then scrubbed with a nylon brush, rinse, and repeat. The majority of the emulsion peeled off after the first try. Second time around, the remaining emulsion did not come off so easy.

30 min into scrubbing and soaking the screen with photo emulsion remover in a bathtub, my hands and foot exposed to the chemical started to tingle. That was the point I decided that i should stop scrubbing and admit defeat.

30 min into scrubbing the screen...FAIL.

30 min into scrubbing the screen with a toothbrush reminded me of the scene in Private Benjamin where Goldie Hawn's character had to scrub the toilet with an electric tooth brush.

In the end, I learned that...

a) Trying to remove emulsion is not an easy job, a lot of patience and elbow grease is required.